RPT-Berkshire's railroad revamps service with billions, fewer cars

NEW YORK, March 11 (Reuters) - Stung by customer backlash
over last winter's patchy service, Berkshire Hathaway's
BNSF Railways invested billions in shoring up its operations.

But in addition to hiring more than 7,000 new workers and
spending $5.5 billion on improvements to its 32,500-mile (52,300
kilometer) network, the railway also has done something
unexpected: it pulled thousands of rail cars off its lines.

The strategy appears to have paid big dividends this winter,
helping ease congestion on tracks and speed up traffic,
according to a Reuters analysis of weekly data the industry
supplies to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

BNSF rail cars that were stuck at terminals for an
average of 35 hours last winter are now back on the tracks in
less than a day. The trains are also moving 15 percent faster
than they did last year, reducing critical travel times, data
shows.

"BNSF disappointed many of its customers," Berkshire
Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett said in a letter to shareholders
last month about last year's performance of one of North
America's top railroads.

"However, our outsized expenditures are beginning to show
results."

The railway's metrics, which have not been previously
reported, have improved markedly this winter, reflecting less
congestion, increased investments and weaker demand from the oil
and agricultural industries. Since October, BNSF has cut its
number of cars by 9 percent to just under 237,000, whereas the
rest of the industry grew by 0.4 percent.
Continued...